Anti-Palestinian and Palestinian

It is interesting how much of the rhetoric of the Israel-Palestine controversy, as well as the ideological warfare involved have to do with mutual legitimacy. Palestinians seek - and need Israel and the world to recognize - the legitimacy of their culture. There has been a belief circulating since Golda Meir that there are no such things as Palestinians. It is claimed that there never has been a Palestinian culture.

I believe that there has been. Look, whatever they are, everyone seems to hate them. A handful of liberals in every country like them, and Arab governments manipulate their people in to expressing solidarity with them, but no one claims that they like them. (The nature of the region is that no one really likes anyone.) Ergo, whatever it is that no one likes, is what makes the Palestinian culture unique. This should sound familiar to those who read J. P. Sartre's Anti-Semite and Jew.

Israel also needs the recognition of the world, especially its neighbors to recognize their right to be there. For some reason this sort of stuff really turns Israel on.